HoaXposed: Was Smriti Irani really dancing to ‘Ghoomar’?

The video claims to show Smriti Irani and Harsimrat Kaur dancing to the song ‘Ghoomar’ from the film Padmaavat. The tweet has since been deleted.

Chairman of RPG Enterprises, Harsh Goenka, tweeted a video Thursday night that he said showed Union ministers Smriti Irani and Harsimrat Kaur Badal dancing to the controversial song ‘Ghoomar’ from the film Padmaavat.

He tweeted that the two ministers were “dancing in joy”, and the film has the “full blessings” of the government.

Except, the two ministers never danced to that song. The video of Irani and Badal is from 2015 when they danced the giddha, a traditional Punjabi folk dance. The two ministers were visiting the Dasmesh Girls’ College of Education in Muktsar, Punjab at the time.

Irani, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, had earlier received a letter from Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje seeking to delay the release of Padmaavat until changes were made to it.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is the Union Minister of Food Processing, has not made any public statement on the film. The film is due to release on 25 January but the Karni Sena has called for “curfews” on movie theatres to prevent the film from being screened.

Goenka deleted the tweet 14 hours after first posting it. But it had been viewed around 11,900 times, and received 200 retweets and 600 likes. Reached for his comment, he sent a text saying the tweet had been “withdrawn”.

Goenka has taken to Twitter before to weigh in on the debate surrounding the movie. Goenka had tweeted his support to director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, saying that he should start his own “Bharni Sena” to counter “ridiculous attacks” against the film.

The tweet comes days after a group of students claiming to be affiliated with the Rajput Karni Sena stormed a Madhya Pradesh school, claiming that a student was performing to the ‘Ghoomar’ song. The Supreme Court has allowed the release of the film across India, overturning a ban imposed by some states.

The song ‘Ghoomar’ has been contentious with Rajput groups claiming that their queens never danced for anybody.

Incidentally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watched a cultural programme with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad, and the show happened to include a performance to the same song.